Love Heals
by Gaara-no-Jo
Summary: Shizune is relaxing in the woods when an injured man stumbles across her path. It turns out to be Kabuto. Against her better judgement she treats him but he treats her to a side of him she was not expecting.
1. Default Chapter

Well, this fic is uuuuuuutterly bad writing to me, but I felt funky writing a pure romance. I'm more comfortable with violence.

Shukaku: Daaaaaamn straight.

Yeah so...anyway. Help a violent girl feel more more comfortable with her romantic side-

Shukaku: pretends to hurl

AHEM...and comment and review on this fic. Thanks.

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Shizune knelt down to pick the red and brown mushroom and add it to her collection of herbs and medicines. She had some time off and she enjoyed walking in the woods. It was actually a random decision she made to turn the excursion to a medicine collecting one.

The summer weather was cooling down as it turned into fall. The leaves were not yet changing however. She walked deeper into the forest. Under a great oak, she sat her basket down and slipped her sandals off. The cool moss under her feet tickled and felt soft like a carpet. This was her sanctuary away from Tsunade's irresponsibility and away from work. Nature could be the most forgiving friend she had.

Behind her tree she heard a twig snap. Instantly, she grabbed a kunai from a pouch on her hip and tensed up into a crouch. A young man coughed painfully and stumbled into view. He was holding his ribcage, blood staining his shirt. He fell to his knees beside her, apparently unaware of her presence and simply lay over a large knotted root. He was motionless for a few minutes. Shizune didn't move, still unaware of whether or not he was dangerous. He gave a few raspy breaths and tried to support himself to move. He looked up and Shizune gave a small noise of shock.

A man with broken circle rimmed glasses looked up at her with slight alarm. They stared at each other for a few short moments. He sighed and smiled. "Shizune. Long time no see…"

"Ka…Kabuto!" She fell back and scampered to get away from him but he made no movement in response. He only watched. "If you're here, then…"

"Orochimaru is not here. I can move and live away from him, you know," he coughed. A pain in his ribs made him coil up in pain. "Ah…though I'm not really illustrating that now." He groaned and swung his legs over the root and fell to the same side that Shizune was on. Kabuto lied there motionless, only breathing.

Shizune gripped the kunai in her shaking hand. She was uncertain what to do. Here was her enemy lying by her needing healing and mercy but the question floated around her mind, did he deserve it. She could kill him in his weakened state easily.

"I was just thinking…that we're… a lot a like. We both serve on of the Legendary Sannin. They both need us as their right hand often to get the dirty work done," he said in barely above a whisper. "Sure…they could survive without us but we serve them willingly believing that their faults are too basic for their greatnesses to overcome…How…pathetic we are…" he paused, to cough. "How pathetic we are to love such selfish people."

Again he fell silent but this time Shizune approached him to feel his head and examine his wounds. "You're cold. Broken ribs. Several puncture wounds. It seems like you were caught off your guard and in a previously weakened state…"

He didn't answer but he did watch her. He expression did not say whether or not he trusted her to treat him. It was blank and weak.

Her hands were warm against his cold skin. She removed his shirt and ripped strips out of it to make bandages. She worked with surgical precision to heal his wounds. Her chakra sutured wounds and sped healing. The medicines she has picked earlier would help numb the pain in some areas.

Kabuto took her wrist firmly in his hand. She looked surprise at this action and seemed to await an attack but instead he pulled her down to his face. "The bandages are too tight, don't you think?"

"Well, if you want to start bleeding again then yes. Stop complaining and rest. The pain will subside if you relax." She stood up. "You don't need me anymore. You're skilled enough that you can probably take care of yourself by tomorrow."

"Don't leave me, Shizune… Just sit here for a little while, tell me what's going on in your life," he asked, eyes still closed.

She looked down at him at first hesitant to go but she knew that this was her enemy. "I'm not going to help you spy." He didn't say anything in response. She returned to the ground and sat beside him, pulling her knees up to her chest.

He looked peaceful, almost angelic. His shattered glasses were folded neatly beside him as was his Sound village headband, now scratched and worn. His body, well-toned and muscular betrayed the bookish image that he might give off. She took the outer layer of her kimono off and covered him with it.

"Thanks…I was getting cold," he murmured. She smiled. " Hey, do you … This is going to sound strange, but I'm only curious, do you have a boyfriend?"

"You're right, that is strange. No, I don't have time for one."

He opened his eyes and smiled. "Babysitting a legend is full-time job, isn't it?"

"It certainly is. Tsunade's quite the gambler."

"Orochimaru gambles but I dare say he opts for higher stakes." She nodded. "I cook for him too."

"Ah, I don't have to but I do that too. Um… Out of kindness."

Kabuto shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Kind but cruel. The bandages on my chest are too tight, I'm bruised you know."

She pulled her kimono back and fiddled with the bandages. "A medical ninja such as yourself should be a lot tougher than you are."

He smiled took a deep breath. "Well, doctors are often terrible patients." She moved to cover him out but he stopped her again. "I'm still cold…lie beside me."

"Wh…what!" Her face burned. "I've her of sleeping with the enemy but you have go to out or you mind."

He gave her a gentle tug. "It's not like your boyfriend will mind and I have just as much to lose but Orochimaru finding out as you do. Maybe more. Men don't understand feelings like women do."

"I'm not going to-" Somehow Kabuto found enough energy to sit up and kiss her on the lips. He turned his head and coughed.

"I don't have the energy to try anything. It'll be strictly platonic."

Shizune looked around the forest, afraid that some bird would find them and tell the rest o f the world. Slowly she slipped under the kimono with him. She stared up at the canopy of the trees, every muscle in her body tense as a bow. Kabuto slipped in hand in hers and squeezed gently.

"I don't bite unless I'm told to…Relax."

She swallowed hard but did not relax. She was lying, hand in hand, with the assistant of her bitter enemy. She was literally sleeping with a snake, she thought. She ventured to look at him. His eyes were still closed. He thumb ran up and down the skin of her hand.

"Let's date," he said suddenly.

"Date? You move fast, don't you?" She gave a nervous laugh. "And I don't think it'd work between us."

"I know…but for now…let's be together…And pretend that it could work." She tightened her fingers around his hand and continued to absorb the gravity of the situation. "Let's pretend that we'll return to Konoha and I'll take you home and we'll sit together like this and nothing in our worlds will be wrong. I'll buy you things and you'll cook for me instead of Tsunade. One day we'll get married, and have three kids, they'll become medical ninja's just like us. We'll make a practice. We'll be the best in all of Konoha, won't we?"

Shizune moved closer to Kabuto's warm body and rested her head on his shoulder. "Yes." He turned to her and pulled her close to him. He smiled kindly and touched his nose to hers. "Um…pla….platonic?" she pleaded.

"We're dating remember? What's wrong with this?" He forced her to rest her head on his and simply held her like that before his arm relaxed on her waist.

"Kabuto?" He didn't answer or move but the gentle rise and fall of his chest, his slowed breathing, told her that he was asleep. The thought to escape entered her mind but so did his words. "We're dating….what's wrong…with this?" She smiled and put her arms around him and closed her eyes.

The chirping of morning birds woke Shizune the next morning. She sat up and looked around. The glasses, the headband, and Kabuto were gone. He basket was overflowing with herbs and her kimono had been replaced on her body. She wondered if she hadn't dreamed the entire encounter. Oddly, tears welled up in her eyes and her nose burned with oncoming tears. She pinched her cheeks and shook her head break her mind of the irrational sorrow that suddenly overwhelmed her.

"I should return to Konoha. Tsunade will worry," she said to no one in particular. She gathered up her things and headed home. She opened her door and dropped the basket at the table. She sat down on her couch and stared out the window, thinking of her 'dream' with Kabuto. "We'll have three kids. Oh man, I must be working to hard." She stretched and decided to make breakfast. When she entered the kitchen, she almost fell on the floor. Wrapped in cellophane was a plate of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Next to the plate were a red rose, a note, and a pair of broken, circular rimmed glasses. She picked up the note and the glasses. Flipping it open, the read the note:

"Next time I stumble half dead into Konoha, I'll give you a visit. Take care of Tsunade, Legends are nothing without the people who support them.

Love-

Kabuto"

She smiled and placed the card in her pocket. She unwrapped the pancakes and licked syrup off her finger. "I have a boyfriend." She mused.


	2. Chapter 2

People asked for it, so I'll deliver. The next chapter to Love Heals. Enjoy.

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"Sound's attacking," yelled a Konoha ninja. Shizune was not done healing a slight wound on another of their teammates.

"Damn," she cursed silently. She quickly tied the wounded arm up and gripped a kunai in her right hand, guarding the wounded soldier. "How did they find us?"

"I don't know." She clicked her tongue and started forward, the other ninja, Kazu, moving as silently as possible. Shizune stopped still as she heard a familiar low laugh. Orochimaru, standing with Sasuke, laughed at them from his perch on top of a fallen log.

"Tsunade's sent her little insects, again," the old man chuckled. His pale skin was pulled tight over his features and his yellow eyes were full of wicked mirth. Shizune wanted nothing more than to pluck them out. "Kabuto-"

Her breath stuck in her throat.

"I suppose you can dispose of them?" Kabuto jogged up the log to stand beside Orochimaru. He surveyed the Konoha ninja and nodded. He showed no sign of knowing Shizune or caring about her welfare.

He pushed his glasses up with his middle finger and smiled coolly. "Of course," he stated. "Don't worry about dirtying your hands with these trivial matter, Orochimaru-sama. I'll be happy to take care of them."

"Good." With that Orochimaru and Sasuke disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving no trail as to where they were going. Kabuto surrounded his hands in chakra and laughed mirthlessly.

"Now where should I begin? With the woman, the gimp, or the novice?"

Kazu hissed and held his arm out to cover Shizune. "Let me handle this, Shizune. You take Michinaga back to the village."

"You'll die," Shizune warned in the strongest voice she could muster. Her stomach was turning backflips in her stomach. She has slept with the man they now faced. He had supposedly wanted a romantic relationship with her. She had been a fool.

Kazu pushed her with his arm and stepped forward at the same time. "What's important is that you get back safely, Shizune, to report this back to the Hokage. Do you understand? I'm making the sacrif- " His sentence ended in a gurgle of blood.

"It's so easy to reverse the flow of blood to someone's brain if you know _exactly_ where to hit," Kabuto explained. His hand was on the man's stomach and the other on his chest. "It's a slow and painful way to die…" Kazu was slowly turning all different shades as he stumbled around, trying fight the inevitable death choking him.

"KABUTO!" Shizune screamed. She launched an attack at him, swinging her chakra laced hands in a controlled fury at the fellow medical nin. He emotions were in a flurry as well. Betrayal, sadness, shame, longing, all of the emotions of the heart wildly flailing against her brain which was trying to concentrate on saving Kazu and staying alive.

She tried to catch his eyes, to find what his true feelings were, but Kabuto was as unreadable as a thousand year old scroll- indecipherable, vague, and mysterious. This only made her more infuriated with herself. Kabuto, she now realized, was deceptive. She felt as though she always knew this but in the moment that he had lain helpless at her feet, saying such sweet words, such deep, meaningful words, she had forgotten.

Why? Why did this make tears sting at her eyes like this? She hit him in the arm and left shoulder before jumping back and unleashing a deadly cloud of poison. Kabuto stumbled and coughed. Kazu collapsed behind her. Her brain scolded her for being emotionally unstable at such a critical time. She had to make a choice: save Kazu or continue to attack Kabuto, who outclassed her in battle by a fair bit? She chose Kazu.

She ran over and immediately began working to undo the damage that had already been done. Organs were shutting down and there was a serious chance that Kazu would never be able to walk or talk again. Still she tried.

"How dare you turn your back on me," Kabuto's voice snarled. She turned around just in time to see his fist hit her squarely in the face. She blacked out from the pain, blood filling her mouth and sinus cavity. She made yet another mistake with Kabuto.

The steady beep of hospital equipment woke her. Tsunade personally fixed her broken nose. Kazu had not survived. Even if Kabuto hadn't knocked her out, the damage to his brain was too extensive and he died shortly after being found. Michinaga was also found in critical condition, Kabuto roughing him up to near death. Shizune refused to talk much after the incident. Genma and Kotetsu chalked it up to stress but Tsunade seemed a little more concerned.

It took a fair bit of arguing and finally a slammed door to convince the Hokage that the medical nin was not in the mood for therapy. Shizune sat beside Michinaga's bedside, silently apologizing for being in love with the enemy. She felt that somewhere inside she held back and that was why one friend was gone and another clinging to life.

Guilty and near tears she stood up and went home. The sun was setting over the village and a quiet pall was hovering over the streets. It was probably her imagination, she reasoned grimly. She unlocked the door to her home and stepped in. A man's pair of sandals was waiting in the alcove. She stared hard at them and ran inside, slipping off her own pair instinctively.

Kabuto was waiting by the window. He smiled, "Welcome home."

Shizune threw the closest thing to her at Kabuto. He dodged the vase of flowers by stepping to the side nonchalantly. Inside of her something hurt, it felt wounded, stupid, naïve. It had to be fixed. She pulled a fist full of needles from a case sitting on the edge of the coffee table. They were waiting for sharpening but they were plenty sharp enough to cause damage.

"I'll kill you, you bastard! How dare you come back here after you attacked us!" The Konoha traitor said nothing nor did he move- he just stared silently. The wounded thing inside of her flinched. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you. You fooled me once but I won't be fooled again!" The needles cut through the air and one sliced Kabuto's cheek. Still he didn't move. "SAY SOMETHING!" She run up to him and slapped him hard. "You betrayed me!"

"I did my job," he stated simply. "Could you honestly say that if Tsunade ordered for you to attack Sound, that you would resist? Would _you_ have warned me of the danger and thereby betray your village? All I could do… was make sure that you lived." He wiped his cheek, though it continued to bleed. "But I'm happy that our first lover's spat was over something this significant." He smirked. "Usually they're so trite and unimportant."

Shizune backed away and stalked to over to the shattered pieces of glass. "We are not lovers… We are enemies. Soldiers." She felt her eyes sting. "You drew all of those romantic parallels like we were some star-crossed lovers! You behave like you're some kind of genius and decide things so firmly but because of your position in Orochimaru's army… I should have known better." Kabuto knelt down beside her and started wiping up the water. "I'm a woman. I know what love is. It's not something that can be decided upon so suddenly… As long as you are with Orochimaru… we can never be anything more that two people that fight battles with each other."

"Love is not easy, Shizune." He put his hand over hers causing her to look up. The fading sunlight caused an impenetrable glare on his glasses, impeding her ability to read his emotions. "You're probably right. What I'm doing, forcing things so awkwardly like this, may not be love at all. I may never know true love. After all of this… you can move on and make a life but in my game, in Orochimaru's gamble for power, I'm just a chip doomed to fall… So, as a dying man's wish… I just want the moments that we are here together to be unaltered by something so damn annoying as the truth." He turned his head to pick up the rag and Shizune saw the unmistakable eyes of a world she could never understand; one of strife, sacrifice, darkness, and necessity. Was this the truth of a shinobi?

"Kabuto…"

He gathered the trash in the towel and stood up. "I hope I didn't hurt you too badly. I tried to be convincing but still…you are my woman so…" He emptied the broken bits and pieces in the garbage and adjusted his glasses.

"I wondered why you were holding back… So you're serious about this- about this lie?" He settled back down on the ground beside her and kissed her cheek. "Kabuto…"

"You're still stuck in reality. I'll help you escape." He smiled and held out his hand. "After this, if you take my hand, we'll be together again and this apartment will be our world to control, to be as wonderful or as miserable as we make it."

Shizune looked at the hand in front of her. It was a key he was offering; a respite from reality. But was it okay to take it that far? She looked at him; he was smiling. Kabuto had already taken the leap into the world of fantasy. As a healer, she couldn't let him take such an unhealthy journey alone. Shizune put her hand in his.

Kabuto pulled up and pulled her into him. "There. We've rejected the past and reality." He wrapped his arms around her and leaned forward slightly.

"This is a lie," she whispered. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. Why did someone so talented, so smart, wise, deep… have to be her enemy? Why was she willing to cling to this lie? She was stupid.

"Shhh…" He pressed his lips to hers. They were warm lips, soft…and full of lies, sweet, wonderful lies. Kabuto pulled back and grinned, his eyes closed. She smiled and brushed his bleeding cheek with her thumb. He opened his eyes and kissed her again more passionately. Shizune relented willingly.


End file.
